If printing, please conserve by doing so on the front and back of one sheet.  Reduce font size if necessary.

Montebello E-News

 January 15, 2010

The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion
that we have been appointed policeman to the human race. Walter Lippman

In light of globalization and our dependence on foreign energy, would Lippman say the same today?  Would he advise us to move toward self-sustainability?

1.  Announcements

2.  Which Is More Broken?

3.  About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

One of our own is a finalist. Montebello Housing Development Corporation, "MHDC", is a finalist in a photograph competition. MHDC needs our votes to win. You can vote once a day, every day. http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=194764

"Christmas at the Cannon".  More than 300 volunteers came together to serve lunch to more than 3,500 needy local residents at the 21st annual Christmas at the Cannon program Dec. 24 at the Quiet Cannon. ... The program has turned into a major community event and has fed more than 35,000 people to date. The families invited to participate are selected through local churches, schools and other organizations from Montebello and the surrounding area.  "This event is a great example of love and compassion for others as the public and private sectors work together to ensure that nobody in the community is left behind at the holidays," committee member Dan Hernandez said. ... by Anne Donofrio-Holter, as printed in Los Angeles Wave, December 31, 2009. I wonder how difficult it would be for "local churches, schools and other organizations" to invite people based on some criterion of merit, like service to one's neighborhood or family, instead of neediness?

For homebuyers. Free homebuyer-education class. January 30, 2010, from 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM. This class is in Spanish. Montebello Housing Development Corporation, 1619 Paramount Boulevard, Montebello, California 90640, 323-722-3955.

Part-time job. Montebello Housing Development Corporation joins "Census 2010 ¡Hagase Contar! Campaign". The following train-the-trainers workshop near you: San Gabriel Valley, Friday, January 15, 2010 8:30 -11:30 AM, Laborers Local 300 - El Monte, 11346 Ramona Blvd., El Monte, CA 91731. Please register online: http://hagasecontar.yaeshora.info/eventos/. For more info, call (877) 352-3676.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Ignorance is bliss. If we do not hear bad news, of which there is more than enough, we are more likely to whistle our way through the day, yes? But what happens when the sun sets?  See the following news briefs.

Pacific islanders challenge Czech coal plant, citing threat. The Federated States of Micronesia filed a complaint with the Czech environment ministry, challenging the extension of a Czech coal power plant on the grounds global climate change disproportionately threatens the island nation -- launching a new legal phase in deliberations over environmental policy. In the complaint, Micronesia argues coal development might mean the "destruction of the entire environment of our state." Reuters (1/12) From UN Wire, 1.13.10

Deadly diseases flow more freely as animals, humans live closer. Increased urbanization, global warming, environmental disruption and other man-made factors have ratcheted up the incidence of deadly diseases jumping the animal-human species barrier, greatly increasing the threat of global pandemic. The destruction of animal habitats and a revolution in farming and land-use practices have brought an epidemiological transition, with diseases flowing more freely between animals and humans -- who are in closer contact than ever. The Independent (London) (1/4) From UN Wire, 1.4.10

The L.A. Times reports that, "Over the next six months, a budget-induced employee retirement program will shrink [L.A.'s] civilian workforce—a group that excludes the Department of Water and Power—by at least 9%. Some policymakers have only begun grasping the magnitude of the exodus of librarians, building inspectors, traffic officers, city planners and other workers, many of them the city's most experienced employees." Imagining Los Angeles without "librarians, building inspectors, traffic officers, [and] city planners" will sound, to many, as if nothing has changed in the city at all—but this governmental downsizing comes just as speculation about California's impending bankruptcy grows.  http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010924.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium
=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+worldchanging_fulltext+%28WorldChanging.com+Full+
Text%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail  On Wednesday, I had a conversation with a local principal, who said that, due to budget cuts, she had lost an assistant principal, student adviser, and librarian. Please tell me again why globalization and consumerism are necessary for us.

After the establishment of the Center for the Study of Climate Change within the CIA, the Pentagon will include climate change as a security threat in its Quadrennial Defense Review -- and will begin planning contingency scenarios for worst-case outcomes. Among the threats the Pentagon will war game is the melting of the Himalayan ice mass, which would prompt massive flooding and endanger millions of lives in Bangladesh. National Public Radio (12/14) From UN Wire, 12.14.09

Study: Higher sea levels imperil 20 million Bangladeshis. As many as 20 million Bangladeshis will be threatened as sea levels rise by 18% during the next 40 years, a study by the Dhaka-based Institute of Water Modelling. The study's authors call for $4.2 billion to build embankments and create forests along low-lying coastal areas. AlertNet.org/Reuters (12/11) From UN Wire, 12.11.09

Tomorrow 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the perhaps unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. Many if not most will publish it on the front page, warning of a "profound emergency." The Guardian of London, which helped draft the editorial, published it today, with a note at the end. Here it is. "Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted. ..." Published December 6, 2009 at http://ow.ly/K6n5. Did the traditional American news media tell you about this appeal published by newspapers?

Hantz Farms is buying up abandoned city properties in Detroit, with plans to convert them to large-scale commercial agriculture use. The idea is that they will put "pods" of land scattered throughout the city's neighborhoods back into production, whether by growing rows of organic lettuces where the soil is good, trees for biofuel where it's less good, or even mushrooms in abandoned factory buildings. Hantz officials predict that the demand for locally produced agricultural products will make this venture more profitable than other real estate options in the downtrodden Rust Belt city. The article cites numerous hurdles, including existing zoning and soil contamination, but it certainly makes you think. Vertical farms became an inspiring idea at a time when it seemed like land prices would never fall again. In cities where economic recovery will come slowly at best, can the traditional -- horizontal -- farm find its place in the urban core? http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010921.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=
feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+worldchanging_fulltext+%28WorldChanging.com+Full+Text
%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail Where is the fly in this sweet-smelling ointment? I wish to read about residents owning their neighborhoods and creating jobs for themselves, not about a large company taking land and capital from a community.

From the health-care debate, we hear that Canadians come to the US for certain treatments. This makes our system better. The Canadians say that their system covers everyone, while over forty million Americans are uninsured. So, supposedly, this makes the Canadian system better. Taking pride and patriotism out of the equation, what should we think? If it is any help, there are results from a Harris poll which tell us what people think about their own health-care systems:

Several recent surveys by Harris Interactive®, including the latest Financial Times/Harris Poll, asked an identical question of cross-sections of adults in ten developed countries about their own health care systems. This research finds that the United States has the most unpopular system. … [Emphasis mine] http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=927

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter, and for submitting stories to “Montebello Memories” at the Web site.